CATCH-UP (Part 2) - NANNY & PAPA

The first couple weeks in December Nanny & Papa Walker came to visit. They spend the winters down in Arizona, so during their trek in the RV down from Vermont they stopped to see us. Although it was cold and Justin had to work most of their visit, we had a nice relaxed time just hanging out. Brianna got totally spoiled while they were here! She got so used to them bringing her presents every time she saw them that if they didn't have something in their hands when they walked through the door she would ask them, "What you bring me?". :) Kinda embarrassing and cute at the same time!

Here's Bri and Nanny cuddling. It was so nice to see Barb feeling better this time. Last time we saw her she was really sick and could barely get up and walk around. It was amazing to see the transformation - she even was able to chase or be chased around the house by Brianna.

Hanging with Papa! She loved climbing all over him!!!

Getting a little horsey ride.

Playing with one of the many presents she got.

I couldn't help but include this following one. (Check out where Bri's hand is!!! Crazy child!!! LOL!!!)

While they were here we got the house ready for Christmas. Justin's parents were even nice enough / sneaky enough to buy us our Christmas tree!

Bri helping mom out.

Nanny was the ornament hand-er-outer.

The bottom of the tree was very well decorated. The rest was done by me cause the men were too busy hanging up lights around the house.

I don't know why, but after each ornament she hung up she would sprint to the kitchen and get a drink from her water bottle and then sprint back.

Me and Barb.

Holy "CHEEEESE" face!!!

Posing for a finale picture by the tree.

I had to include this "evil stare" one too! She's too funny - man that kiddo makes me laugh!!!

We also went to see Santa Clause at the mall, but since you can't use your own camera and to get a picture it costs 4 easy payments of $49.99, we decided to just take these pictures next to Santa's house.

Bri wasn't too fond of Santa - she didn't cry, but she did not want to sit on his lap. So she sat next to him on the bench with me sitting on the other side. The Santa there was so lame and barely even talked to her. No "Ho,Ho,Ho" of even a "What do you want for Christmas?". I think we only got a couple "ok's" out of him. Dumb!

We look forward to seeing Nanny & Papa again in April. It's such a nice perk to live back in the lower 48 and get to see family more often.

PLAYING CATCH-UP : CHRISTMAS

Oh how I've been slacking on blogging!!! And I don't even have a good excuse - I just never get around to it. But anyways here's a little look at our Christmas - I know, I know, it was forever ago!!! This year it was so fun because Brianna is now old enough to kind of understand the whole Christmas concept. She was so fun! This year she asked Santa to bring her a black horse (not sure where she came up with this, but she thought of it all on her own), and a Mickey Mouse phone (she wanted it at the store one day, so I told her to ask Santa for it). So here's a ton of pictures of our day.

Getting Santa's cookies out. We didn't have any carrots for the reindeer, so we went with some celery sticks.

Opening her Christmas Eve presents.

She got a little Christmas book and these cute little jammies.

Christmas Eve - man did this kid get spoiled. It looked like we had 5 kids! :) Every single present you see was for her!!!

Opening her stocking.

The Mickey Mouse phone.

Gotta love her shoes! :)

Playing some tunes for dad to sing to. LOL!!!

The "Black Horse".

She was is so CUTE!!! She ran to go get a present and was bringing it back to sit by me and open it when she stopped in the middle of the living room, looked at me, turned around and looked at all her presents, ran back and grabbed another and brought it to me and told me, "Mommy, you need to open a present!". It was just so sweet to see her not all about her and thinking everything was hers - she just wanted to share.

Being super silly with daddy.

Of course the big hit of the day was the box that Justin made into a fort.

Peek-a-Boo!

Here's a little video of her getting her kitchen - sorry it's so dark.

It was such a fun day. It took her forever to open everything. We just let her take her time and play with everything in between. I'm pretty sure we could have gotten her 2 presents and she would have been just as happy. I was telling my parents that it looked like we had 5 kids and they just laughed and said the funny thing is even if you had five kids there would still just be the same amount of presents But oh well, I guess she'll only get spoiled for so long, so she might as well live it up! :) Man I love my little family - I am so blessed!!! And a BIG THANKS to all of our family that helped make it a special day for Brianna!!! Even though we were far away from home we still felt loved!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Okay so I realize that it's literally been FOREVER since I blogged. We've been busy busy busy packing, moving, and now unpacking that I've just been a big slacker. But I had to get these pictures up on here for the grandparents! So here you go - they're so stinkin cute if I do say so myself! :)

So Brianna went as a cowgirl on her trusty steed, Pinto for Halloween!!! She was so cute and so much fun this year. It's so fun to have a little one now and see how excited they get for holidays. I have to admit this wasn't my first choice in costumes for her. But she worked it - and pretty darn good I would say. :) We were at the store looking for costumes and I was thinking maybe a cute little witch or fairy when Brianna spotted this pony. And that's when she fell in LOVE. She wanted it so badly that I finally gave in - she was so not letting me leave the store without it. It was really cute though because she had already named it and was introducing her new pony Pinto to all the customers by the time we got to the check-out line. She is totally in love with her pony and has been riding it around the house ever since we brought it home.

Here she is posing for a few pictures before we headed off to go trick-or treating.

She wouldn't wear the cowboy hat so we opted for some cute french braids.

Giddy up!!!

Trick-or-Treating at the mall. (Even though most of the stores were already out of candy!) We also went to the Halloween carnival at the church, but it was really small so we ended up leaving early.)

Posing with mom after trick-or-treating.

We couldn't get her to smile so we went for the good old tongue picture. :)

The day before we went to a local pumpkin patch. It wasn't very Halloweeny, but it was a fun place for Brianna to play.

Riding the horses with her awesome dad! LOL!!! He was such a great sport - I love that he loves being a dad!!!

Merry-Go-Round

Petting zoo

"Feeding" the bunnies. She thought the mulchy stuff in their cage was food.

This bunny went CRAZY after she was done holding it. It leaped from my arms back into it's cage - I guess it wasn't a fan of the Walker family!

You can't tell in this picture, but this sheep is literally scaling the gate to get to the food in my hand. (As you can tell by my "lovely" face, I was a little surprised!)

SLIDES!!!

Going down the BIG slide with mommy. (She was mad at me cause she wanted to go all by herself!)

Jumping on the big bouncy.

Pony rides!!!

Trying to get a picture of her with her pumpkin. Oh it was so not happening!

I guess they had a bad pumpkin growing year cause only the kids got a free pumpkin with their ticket purchase and they were all little tiny ones. But it was okay cause it was the perfect little peanut size!

Here are a couple of videos we took of her at the mall. She literally could have cared less about the candy thing, she just wanted to run free on her pony!!!

If you can't understand her at the end of the video she says, "Hi Partner! I'm Brianna!" Oh man she is so cute. LOVE THAT LITTLE GIRL!!!